In
Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.

4 out of 5 stars

Good book...but...

By
Disintegrator
on
08-26-19

Hitler's Soldiers

The German Army in the Third Reich

By:
Ben H. Shepherd

Narrated by:
Michael Page

Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
173

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
154

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
153

For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.

4 out of 5 stars

Thorough and scholarly

By
Mary A.
on
03-23-18

Europe

A History

By:
Norman Davies

Narrated by:
Derek Perkins

Length: 61 hrs and 48 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
66

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
64

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
62

Norman Davies captures it all - the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests, the Papal struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars.

5 out of 5 stars

My Favorite Historian

By
bernickus
on
05-14-19

Fur Volk and Fuhrer

The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

By:
Erwin Bartmann,
Derik Hammond

Narrated by:
James Foster

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
472

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
439

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
437

Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just 17-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit.

5 out of 5 stars

Wow what a ride

By
Daniel S Seely
on
08-06-17

Heinrich Himmler

The SS, Gestapo, His Life and Career

By:
Roger Manvell,
Heinrich Fraenkel

Narrated by:
Joe Barrett

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
173

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
160

Story

4 out of 5 stars
159

Authors Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel, notable biographers of the World War II German leaders Joseph Goebbels and Herman Goring, delve into the life of one of the most sinister, clever, and successful of all the Nazi leaders: Heinrich Himmler. As the head of the feared SS, Himler supervised the extermination of millions. Here is the story of how a seemingly ordinary boy grew into an obsessive and superstitious man who ventured into herbalism, astrology, and homeopathic medicine before finally turning to the “science” of racial purity and the belief in the superiority of the Aryan people.

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

By
Jean
on
06-02-16

The Gestapo

A History of Horror

By:
Jacques Delarue,
Mervyn Savill (translator)

Narrated by:
Eric Brooks

Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
180

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
160

Story

4 out of 5 stars
167

From 1933 to 1945, the Gestapo was Nazi Germany's chief instrument of counter-espionage, political suppression, and terror. Jacques Delarue, a saboteur arrested by the Nazis in occupied France, chronicles how the land of Beethoven elevated sadism to a fine art. The Gestapo: A History of Horror draws upon Delarue's interviews with ex-Gestapo agents to deliver a multi-layered history of the force whose work included killing student resisters, establishing Aryan eugenic unions, and implementing the Final Solution.

5 out of 5 stars

Once read never fogotten!!

By
Peter M. O'Handley
on
04-27-13

Masters of Death

The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust

By:
Richard Rhodes

Narrated by:
Neil Hellegers

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
84

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
79

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
79

In
Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.

4 out of 5 stars

Good book...but...

By
Disintegrator
on
08-26-19

Hitler's Soldiers

The German Army in the Third Reich

By:
Ben H. Shepherd

Narrated by:
Michael Page

Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
173

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
154

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
153

For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.

4 out of 5 stars

Thorough and scholarly

By
Mary A.
on
03-23-18

Europe

A History

By:
Norman Davies

Narrated by:
Derek Perkins

Length: 61 hrs and 48 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
66

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
64

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
62

Norman Davies captures it all - the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests, the Papal struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars.

5 out of 5 stars

My Favorite Historian

By
bernickus
on
05-14-19

Fur Volk and Fuhrer

The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

By:
Erwin Bartmann,
Derik Hammond

Narrated by:
James Foster

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
472

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
439

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
437

Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just 17-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit.

5 out of 5 stars

Wow what a ride

By
Daniel S Seely
on
08-06-17

Heinrich Himmler

The SS, Gestapo, His Life and Career

By:
Roger Manvell,
Heinrich Fraenkel

Narrated by:
Joe Barrett

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
173

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
160

Story

4 out of 5 stars
159

Authors Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel, notable biographers of the World War II German leaders Joseph Goebbels and Herman Goring, delve into the life of one of the most sinister, clever, and successful of all the Nazi leaders: Heinrich Himmler. As the head of the feared SS, Himler supervised the extermination of millions. Here is the story of how a seemingly ordinary boy grew into an obsessive and superstitious man who ventured into herbalism, astrology, and homeopathic medicine before finally turning to the “science” of racial purity and the belief in the superiority of the Aryan people.

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

By
Jean
on
06-02-16

The Gestapo

A History of Horror

By:
Jacques Delarue,
Mervyn Savill (translator)

Narrated by:
Eric Brooks

Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
180

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
160

Story

4 out of 5 stars
167

From 1933 to 1945, the Gestapo was Nazi Germany's chief instrument of counter-espionage, political suppression, and terror. Jacques Delarue, a saboteur arrested by the Nazis in occupied France, chronicles how the land of Beethoven elevated sadism to a fine art. The Gestapo: A History of Horror draws upon Delarue's interviews with ex-Gestapo agents to deliver a multi-layered history of the force whose work included killing student resisters, establishing Aryan eugenic unions, and implementing the Final Solution.

5 out of 5 stars

Once read never fogotten!!

By
Peter M. O'Handley
on
04-27-13

Hitler's Empire

How the Nazis Ruled Europe

By:
Mark Mazower

Narrated by:
Michael Page

Length: 27 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
35

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
32

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
31

Drawing on an unprecedented range and variety of original research, Hitler's Empire sheds new light on how the Nazis designed, maintained, and lost their European dominion - and offers a chilling vision of what the world would have become had they won the war. Mark Mazower forces us to set aside timeworn opinions of the Third Reich, and instead shows how the party drew inspiration for its imperial expansion from America and Great Britain.

5 out of 5 stars

Page Turning Scholarship

By
philip
on
06-08-19

The Third Reich at War

By:
Richard J. Evans

Narrated by:
Sean Pratt

Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
971

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
758

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
752

Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives.
The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.

5 out of 5 stars

Masterful

By
Karen
on
09-03-10

Kiev 1941

Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East

By:
David Stahel

Narrated by:
Matthew Waterson

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
63

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
60

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
60

In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath.

5 out of 5 stars

The book you must read on Hitler's War with Russia

By
Kindle Customer
on
05-28-19

In Deadly Combat

A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front

By:
Gottlob Herbert Bidermann,
Derek S. Zumbro - translator

Narrated by:
Paul Woodson

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
237

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
219

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
218

Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Gottlob Herbert Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war in the Courland Pocket. In his memoir, he shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape.

3 out of 5 stars

Not as engaging as others

By
Bookworm
on
12-20-17

The Master of Auschwitz:

Memoirs of Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant SS

By:
Rudolf Hoess

Narrated by:
Tim Dalgleish

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
157

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
143

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
143

The first-hand account of the life, career, and the practices of horror at Auschwitz, written by Auschwitz Kommandant SS Rudolf Hoss as he awaited execution for his crimes. Including his psychological interviews at Nuremberg.

4 out of 5 stars

Hindsight. Not 20/20

By
Ted
on
04-16-18

Hitler's Hangman

The Life of Heydrich

By:
Robert Gerwarth

Narrated by:
Napoleon Ryan

Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
253

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
227

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
224

Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the 20th century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany.

5 out of 5 stars

Essential reading

By
Wilf H.
on
01-05-17

The Coming of the Third Reich

By:
Richard J. Evans

Narrated by:
Sean Pratt

Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,496

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
1,150

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,154

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With
The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time.

5 out of 5 stars

Compelling and depressing

By
Tad Davis
on
06-30-10

Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution

By:
Ian Kershaw

Narrated by:
Nick Sandys

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
28

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
25

Story

4 out of 5 stars
25

This book is the culmination of more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi Germany by one of the period’s most distinguished historians. The volume brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian Kershaw’s research on the Holocaust for the first time. The writings are arranged in three sections - Hitler and the Final Solution, popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in historiography - and Kershaw provides an introduction and a closing section on the uniqueness of Nazism.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Historiography not intended as a history

By
The History Club
on
02-17-19

American Carnage

On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump

By:
Tim Alberta

Narrated by:
Jason Culp

Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
551

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
495

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
492

The 2016 election was a watershed for the United States. But, as Tim Alberta explains in American Carnage, to understand Trump’s victory is to view him not as the creator of this era of polarization and bruising partisanship, but rather as its most manifest consequence. American Carnage is the story of a president’s rise based on a country’s evolution and a party’s collapse. As George W. Bush left office with record-low approval ratings and Barack Obama led a Democratic takeover of Washington, Republicans faced a moment of reckoning.

5 out of 5 stars

masterpiece

By
ZZ
on
07-26-19

Blood Red Snow

The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

By:
Günter K. Koschorrek

Narrated by:
Nigel Patterson

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
387

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
357

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
354

Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some 40 years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.

5 out of 5 stars

Great Book

By
fill
on
08-04-18

The Collapse of the Third Republic

An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940

By:
William L. Shirer

Narrated by:
Grover Gardner

Length: 48 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
137

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
125

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
124

As an international war correspondent and radio commentator, William L. Shirer didn't just research the fall of France. He was there. In just six weeks, he watched the Third Reich topple one of the world's oldest military powers - and institute a rule of terror and paranoia. Based on in-person conversation with the leaders, diplomats, generals, and ordinary citizens who both shaped the events of this time and lived through them on a daily basis, Shirer shapes a compelling account of historical events - without losing sight of the personal experience.

5 out of 5 stars

A Must Read

By
Anonymous User
on
06-18-19

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

By:
Nikolaus Wachsmann

Narrated by:
Paul Hodgson

Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
734

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
682

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
675

In
KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.

5 out of 5 stars

Worth every minute

By
Kathy Perow
on
10-06-15

Publisher's Summary

In Nazi Germany, they were called the Schutzstaffel. The world would know them as the dreaded SS - the most loyal and ruthless enforcers of the Third Reich...It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany - ranging from local village "gendarmes" all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo. And by 1944 the militarized Waffen SS had more than 800,000 men serving in the field, even rivaling Germany's regular armed forces, the Wehrmacht.

In Army of Evil: A History of the SS, author Adrian Weale delves into materials not previously available, including recently released intelligence files, and the most up-to-date research. Going beyond the myths and characterizations, this comprehensive account reveals the reality of the SS as a cadre of unwavering political fanatics and power-seeking opportunists who slavishly followed an ideology that disdained traditional morality, and were prepared to implement it to the utmost, murderous extreme that ultimately resulted in the Holocaust.

This is a definitive historical narrative of the birth, legacy, and ultimate demise of one of the most feared political and military organizations ever known, and those twisted, cruel men who were responsible for one of the most appalling crimes against humanity in all history.

Critic Reviews

"Compelling…Weale elucidates the warped values which enabled this sinister organization to commit some of the worst crimes in recorded history. This is an extremely important audiobook which I recommend most highly." (Michael Burleigh, author of
Moral Combat)

Good Information, if a Little Dry

It took me a long time to get through this audiobook. You can think of the author as being a kind of amateur historian. His career is in the military, but he obviously has a passion for history. The author tells us that he was actually in the middle of writing the book when he was called up to be chief of staff of a force running a provisional government in Dakar for the British army.

The book is not badly written, but it is evident that Adrian Weale is more of a historian than an author. He's not quite the story teller that other authors are. This is what may make it difficult for some readers to get through this book. There's a lot of good information, and there definitely are some fascinating aspects.

The book is difficult to follow at times. It's as if the author is telling the play-by-play, but without stopping and lingering on certain plays. Weale runs through events chronologically and mixes in introduction segments for important figures along the way. This is well done, but at times the changes in the time line are confusing.

The narrator has an unusual voice and style for audiobooks. It's not that Don Hagen is difficult to understand or annoying, he's just a bit dry. To be frank, Hagen is a bit boring. It's not that his voice doesn't fit with the topic or with the author's writing style, but he's rather plain. And there's something about his style which also makes it difficult to speed listen.

In the preface, the author sets out that he wants to correct misconceptions about the SS. That introduction may end up being a bit disappointing for some listeners, as Adrian Weale tries to lower expectations right away. He says that this book is written for the general reader and not the academic. This is fine, but often times that means that the book is not going to go very deep. Weale says the book is not a comprehensive history of the SS. This is disappointing, as the subtitle of the book is &quot;A History of the SS.&quot;

The history begins at the end of World War I. The author gives a recap of the way the German government changed and was reborn after the abdication of the Kiser. This history of German politics between the wars is one of the most interesting portions of the book.

Weale does a good job explaining the differences between various elements of the SS and the German regime. The Gestapo; the SS; the Brown Shirts: these different forces often seem to get mixed up together by people. While it is quite complicated, the listener will have a better understanding of these different elements.

As with any book that covers the holocaust, there are certain parts of this work that listeners will find difficult to hear. Weale does not spare us from some of the most horrifying details. This is necessary, however, in order to accurately describe the history of those events.

There is not a lot about Hitler in the book, but several of the key SS figures are covered in great detail.

Got lost in the details.

Way too many German names and army divisions to remember. Unless you understand German, you can easily become overloaded. Additionally, the book lags greatly in the middle where the author feels compelled to tell you of every single foreign national to have joined the SS. The book however is not without its good points. It is very informative about the inner structure and politics of the RHSA and its evolution from a couple hundred members in 1933 to the vast organization it became. At the end of the book, the author purposely refused to mention the word "ODESSA" One can only guess as to its obvious exclusion.

The book is worth listening to despite its drawbacks. However, this is not one of those books you listen to more then once.